In my role as Patron of The Bert Jansch Foundation, I am taking part in the Around The World In 80 Plays venture. Yamaha Guitars are passing one of their wonderful L Series guitars around the world via players nominating each other to make a Bert-inspired contribution before nominating another. Johnny Marr began the journey and I was delighted to be nominated by Johnny to be next. I have recorded a small piece and message about Bert, and will be nominating the next player and sending the guitar on it's way soon.

You can watch and share my piece as well as Johnny's here . It will be updated so please watch out for further pieces as the journey continues.

I will be "In Conversation" with Dave Haslam in Manchester on 16th November at the Central Methodist Hall. This is part of the Off The Record Festival held over 2 days in Manchester, hosting curated conversations by day and shows by night. Some of you maye have heard me talk to Dave last year. It was good fun and the audience gets the chance to throw things at me at the end. We want to centre this conversation this year on the present, where we are now, songwriting techniques, and how to survive and still be making music through the years. This isn't another chinwag about the good ole days, and if anything we want to confront the concept of an audience's obsession with where they first discovered an artist and the relationship that creates with the artist. How can any artist get across the life they lead in the meantime and do they have any right?! Please come along and say hi. I always love being in Manchester.

I'm so sad to share the passing of my friend, musical partner and hero Mako Sakamoto. Mako succumbed to illness on Tuesday. I don't know what I'm going to do without him. Please play his spirit loud. He was the greatest.

I will write more in due course but until then please show the world how much love there is for Mako by playing his music and sharing your memories.

See the LIVE page for a date in October with Mull Historical Society in London whose new album Bernard has just finished. Bernard has also recently been completing the new album from folk song collector Sam Lee.

Thankyou to everyone who came out in manchester last night. We had a great chat, Dave was a brilliant host, and hopefully we can do this again sometime.

Waves

Waves Audio have published my list of tips on recording guitars. Hopefully there is something there to try or at least argue about:) You can find my list here.

BB & The King

Our radio show is now up to 23 episodes all of which are archived on our Mixcloud page. You can also share our playlists on the Spotify page. There are now 569 songs up there. Every week we do a themed show LIVE from a North London pub so please listen friday 2-4pm on Boogaloo Radio or download their app.

QTY

The QTY record we finished at the end of last year is slowly coming out. Please check them out.

Shows

I will be doing a couple more shows with Mark Eitzel when he returns to the UK next month. You can find the dates on the LIVE page.

I keep popping up with The Magic Numbers during their Green Note jam nights, but their will be another similar night popping up in London next month so please keep an eye open for a ticket announcement!

Boogaloo Radio have asked me to host a show on their new station. Each week, along with my co-host Mark Kingston, we take you on a themed journey through music that we love, and music that we are discovering. With The News on the hour and special guests to come in future shows listen to our amateur ramblings and let us share some amazing music with you. "BB & The King" airs every Friday from 2-4pm, repeats Sunday 8-10pm and is archived at boogalooradio.com with all the other great shows. You can also avoid us and just catch the playlists each week at our Spotify page which also includes a continuous "Complete" playlist of every song featured on the show plus many extras that we don't have time for each week.

I will be performing with Mark Eitzel in London tomorrow night (7/3/17) and as a late addition will also be doing the Sheffield Greystones show. The Greystones is always a great show which i put down to the lovely pies. We have had such a great response to Mark's album "Hey Mr Ferryman" so it's a pleasure for me to be invited to join in on these songs live. Tickets and links via the live page.

Happy New Year!I have added some new dates to the LIVE page, all in Europe, one in Paris with Mark Eitzel, and 3 in Italy with Ben Watt. I can't even remember the last time I played either of these places so i'm very excited. Come!

I've been busy in the studio this year in between tours with Ben Watt. Records from Mark Eitzel and Pace will be due in the new year. You can hear the first track from Mark here on the Merge Records site. "Hey Mr Ferryman" was recorded in London at Studio 355 in March this year and is due out in Jan 2017.

For the meantime QTY have released their debut single this week. "Rodeo"/"World Breaker" is now on iTunesSpotify and Soundcloud. They are a duo from NYC comprising Dan Lardner and Alex Niemitz, signed to Dirty Hit, and we recorded these tracks at Studio 355 in London last year. In between Ben's tours we recorded an album which I am waiting to mix as soon as I am home again.

I have also completed an album with Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress for release in 2017.